Archived History World
What follows is a condensed telling of the history of the world as best known by the scholars and sages of the nations of men. Known history is best divided up into three major eras or 'Ages' that the world has known.
The Age of Eternity
A time of clerical scripture, folk lore, tales and tellings passed down by word of mouth and the ancient pre-historic eras of the world. This period numbered an innumerable number of years and included many of the legendary wars and battles that affected the Great Making of the world including the rebellion of the immortal Titans and their imprisonment, the sundering of the gods into the Great Houses and War of the Gods which saw the near destruction and then recreation of the world.
The Great Making
Little is known of the ancient First Age of the world, also known as the Age of the Gods. This was a time of the ancient gods and the elder races. What is known is based on legend passed down in oral and written traditions, clerical scripture and fragments of history maintained by the remaining races that hail back to this time. The time of the Great Making had passed. They had created the ancient Dragons to watch over the physical world and the immortal Titans to assist them as they sought to continue Elhim's creation. For all intents and purposes, this era was the prehistoric era of the world.
Sometime during this era, the gods declared an end to the Great Making, and constructed their holy city where they sought to watch the flow of history and to guide the course of their children. They established order over a world newly birthed, and during this age the gods worked and walked directly among the elder races and their younger siblings.
The War of the Gods
This early world of the gods would come crashing to its end as the gods began to fight amongst one another, and as the Void's self-awareness grew. One of the gods, once among their most honored numbers, began to listen to its whispers. Eventually, a prophecy, whose contents and meaning are debated, from the Fates, provided the final impetus for Maugrim to openly declare war on Daeus with intention of seizing the divine mandate of rulership of the world for himself alone. Maugrim's vision differed greatly from his brother's, and with Zalkrakus, the Sword of Destruction clenched within his fist, he separated himself from his brother, and strode forward upon the earth with the intent of conquest. His act earned him the title the Furious Emperor and Bauglir, or Betrayer, and began a war that would rage for eons.
The two brothers had been forged from the Light and the Dark, and their clash was of epic proportions. They drew to themselves the ancient races, and the might of dragons, and fought upon the earth. Their vision for Ea was as night and day, just as their origins, and Maugrim brought forth creatures corrupted by the Void and drew support from the gods who would follow him. As the brothers fought, mountains would fall and the sky would thunder. Armies surged forward from the ends of the earth, and great were the early battles of these great races.
In the wake of the war the oceans were emptied, the skies split and the mountains rent. In the end, the gods of darkness were sealed away and the remaining survivors departed from the physical plane so as to not jeopardize it again with a conflict of that scale. Though the details of these battles have been lost, scholars and priests will recall the Oath the gods are said to have taken--one that sealed them away from the earth, to prevent such acts from happening once more.
Thus ended the first age of the world.
The Age of Ascension
A time of ancient legends, the foundation of empires and the emergence of the lesser races as rulers of their own fate. For millennia following the departure of the gods, ancient forces would continue to guide the wayward sons of men and to impact the influence of history but one species, seemingly blessed by greater powers, ascended above the rest. They were known as the Eldanar and they established a great nation named Kulthus which led to the pinnacle of civilization in areas of both science and sorcery. Eventually their decadence and hubris grew to the point that the gods could not ignore their sins any longer and so they permitted a cataclysm known as The Sundering to occur. This brought about the end of the age and set civilization back a thousand years.
Resettling of the Elder Races
The prehistoric era ended and the second age began. This Age was known as the Age of Ascension. This age began in chaos and confusion as the ruling authority of the gods was removed from the world and the ancient races that had survived the war were left to fend for themselves in a damaged world. The events of the war had left some of the races greatly diminished in number and strength while others were taking advantage of the chaos to strengthen their place.
The early parts of this age saw the apex of the elder races' empires and then their rapid decline as various effects from the Gods' War settled in. The orcs, a powerful force of chaotic destruction, found themselves for the first time without leadership. Without direction, they began to turn against themselves as rabid beasts until Adom would save them. The elves found themselves diminishing as the power of the First Tree began to weaken from Gunakhar's attack upon it. Worse, their king Dawncaller had died, and his sons vied now for the throne. Twin ambition left them without leadership, and their ties to the fae, and their strength, would begin to wane. Dragons began to run amok without their masters to keep them in rein and force them back to their proper realm: the World of Wings and Flame.
It was at this time the hearts of the elves would soon be broken, as a number of their brethren sold their souls and livelihoods to she who would be Maugrim's general, beginning a war which would last for eternity.
Rise of Humanity, the Eldanar and Kulthos
By the middle of the second age, humanity had benefited the most and grew mighty during this age. Though the elder races remained strong, albeit within shrunken realms, it was humanity that gained a sudden increase in influence and power. A certain household of humanity that had been dutifully faithful to the light gods during the ancient war were given a reward for their faithfulness and allowed to settle in the region where the gods themselves had dwelled. The humans who settled in the Holy Land as its new care takers came to be known as the Eldanar. As the power and wisdom of the Eldanar grew the age began to reach a second golden era as a time period known as the Years of the Sun were ushered in. During this time civilization reached its height in areas of scientific and arcane development.
In time, though, the Eldanar leadership began to grow more and more obsessed with finding ways to prolong their life and to study into matters that were forbidden to them by their divine patrons. By the latter part of the Second Age these High Artificers had assumed control over much of the nation, then known by the name of Kulthus, and had began to turn the works of wonders the Eldanar had produced into means by which to enslave the world. At the height of their power they built great floating cities and used their power to begin to drain the magic of the world in their quest for immortality. The gods sent warning after warning but they went unheeded due to the Eldanars' hubris.
The Sundering
Finally, the judgment of the gods struck. One thousand years ago, a mysterious cataclysm, the Sundering, gripped the heartlands of the Kulthus nation. Their floating cities were destroyed and the High Artificers were snatched away.
The Time of the Sword
The Sundering's magical cataclysm ripped its way through the known world, bringing down civilization and setting development back a thousand years and ushering in a time of barbarism known as The Time of the Sword, when magic threatened to vanish from Gaea all together.
The Age of Men
Also known as the age of shadows and, more recently, the age of enlightenment. This is the present era, the Third Age of the world where lesser men guide many of the great nations and the elder races are either in decline or seclusion. Despite this, men number only a small percentage of the entire population of the world and many forces continue to move openly and behind the scenes to determine the course of history. This is the era that the game takes place in and it is a time where new legends, ones not shackled by the ancient doings of the world, are being forged.
Under this shadow the Third Age, then dubbed the Age of Shadows, began. In the chaos that gripped the world following The Sundering the gods of evil slipped back into the world but the gods of light guided the faithful Eldanar that remained into strengthening their newly founded nation Aegena to become a bulwark for the rest of the world. In time Aegena became known as The Millennium Kingdom and its High Kings unified the wayward realms of men and aided other lands and species in these dark times. During this era the gods of evil attempted to strike by triggering an invasion from the Void Beyond Creation. These Daemon Wars were brief but destructive and further cleansed life from the world but the High King Elbereth gave his life to drive back the herald of the god Maugrim, and sealed the Furious Emperor from the world again. This was at great cost, for he died and left no direct heir and thus an end came to the days of Eldanar power and lordship over the world, over five hundred years ago.
The Daemon Wars
As these Wars were far-reaching, they deserve extra note. Although the time given is "over 500 years ago," in reality it was twice that. The Wars began when a pact was made in the Desolation, in what had been Skald. Skald was once a dukedom under the watchful eye of the Millennium Kingdom until its leader made a pact with the mysterious wielder of the Divine Sword of Destruction. This pact initiated the Daemon Wars and transformed Skald and its citizens into a cauldron of shadow that produced numberless and nameless hordes, some of which haven't been seen on Aeryth since.
The destruction of these Wars let to the formation of the twisting of the plains of the Vast, the burning of the Desolation, and the twisting of the Felwood in far-away Alexandros. It has had other, physical effects on Ea's surface.
After the War, Myrddion and other groups of nations were birthed from the Millennium Kingdom.
It was called the DAemon wars because it involved both demons and devils attacking the entire continent. The name does not necessarily reference daemons, which are a product of the Void.
Year 0: Rise of New Nations
The modern era has been built off of the echoing shadows of these ancient tales. With the demise of the Millennium Kingdom the fragments of this nation began to seek autonomy and developed into lands all their own. Today the two most prominent nations in the world are nations that grew out of the sundering of The Millennium Kingdom. In the west the High Kingdom of Myrddion gained power and strength through religious fervor, dedication to the gods of light and the Holy Order of Ea and benefited from leadership tied by distant blood to the old line of Elbereth. This leadership, The House of Terenas, was ordained as High King over the western kingdoms although the title was begrudgingly given in some cases and the western lands bickered more then they were unified. Thus Myrddion existed only as a shadow of old Aegena albeit a mighty shadow.
South east of Myrddion the nation of Charn spread out of colonies once established by Kulthus and separated from the northwest continent by The Desolation and great Mana Rifts, they spread south and east into the continent of Vantyre, there making alliances among lands the west would consider dangerous, decadent and immoral. Charn grew in strength, growing rich and fat off of its conquests and the rule of its theocratic elite. Diametrically opposed to Myrddion, the two nations began skirmishing with one another almost as soon as they came into contact with one another for the first time.
For centuries, these conflicts took place as both empires grew in strength but they did not exist in a vacuum and their warring affairs slowly subsumed smaller realms through both expansionist efforts and treaties made through law, marriage or matters of subterfuge. Constant was the bickering of Charn and Myrddion and they grew heedless of nations caught in-between. The heartlands of the continent Arcania, where Myrddion was situated, was one such example of this as six nations prospered here in a line of control that created what was known as The Border Realms for beyond them lay untamed wilds tainted by Mana Rifts and Desolace and unbroken regions sparsely populated until one reached the distant mysterious lands beyond such as the domain of The Dran. These nations, Alexandros, Dragonier, Landen, Ordalia and Rune each dealt with the steady increase of conflict in different matters and not all survived to this day.
c. 934-983: The Crown Wars and the Great Plague
Alexandros and Dragonier successfully crafted places of power for themselves through either military might or commerce but Landen was destroyed in an invasion by goblinoids triggered by Charn and Ordalia subsumed into Charn’s expansionist efforts as it marched north. The destruction of Landen triggered Myrrish reprisal and a great war known as The Crown Wars began as Rune and Dragonier pledged their efforts to support Myrddion and Alexandros, a nation of engineers, commerce and miners, proclaimed neutrality but agreed to allow their ports to be used as a staging ground for these efforts. However the years of war were not kind and The Great Plague gripped much of the continents of Arcania and Vantyre, dealing a devastating blow to all caught within its passage. In the aftermath, the populations greatly depleted and Charn turning increasingly more towards forbidden forms of Artifice known as Black-Tech, many nations were hard pressed to defend themselves and stay independent. Thus, the Alexandros monarchy fell when a general of Charn, a witch by the name of Altima, invaded and seized the land to turn its rich resources to aid the Charnese war machine in violation of treaty and trade agreements.
c. 936-988: The Sorceress Wars
The witch, Altima, reigned over Alexandros for fifty years and in her time many lands fell under the sway of Charn and the war seemed doomed to end with Charn as the victor. However, Altima suddenly renounced her allegiance to Charn and in turn was abandoned by the nation which itself suddenly retreated from counter striking forces led by an alliance of countries. In time this alliance turned itself towards Altima with the intention of freeing Alexandros and ten years ago this culminated in a struggle known as The Sorceress Wars. In the end, it was not the nations led by Myrddion that defeated Altima but one of the many insurgent groups that resisted her dominion. Charn disappeared behind its great iron wall and a period known as the Quiet Years began.
At the end of the war, Myrddion formed a treaty with Alexandros that gave it sovereign control over its lands until a time could be ascertained that Alexandros had sufficiently built its strength back up to be an independent nation again. Ten years passed and after a period of turmoil and danger, that time came and Alexandros is once more free to seek its own path while facing an uncertain future. This was ten years ago.
The Game Opens
Tenebrae opened in the year 998, ten years after the fall of Altima, during the Age of Man. This is placed into its own section (Recent History) as we expect it will grow through the combined efforts of both players and DMs.
999: The Crumbling of Vardama's Temple in Alexandria
Many years ago now, the Temple of Vardama was taken over by Thulians bent on sacrificing the Vardamans to their dark god. This was only possible with the betrayal of the head of the Vardaman church at the time, Barntos, who, as it turned out, had become a vampire. Later, although this part is not common knowledge, Barntos founded the Garnaks, an elite race of vampire priests of Thul, who took over the city-state of Blar. A group of adventurers were able to prevent these priests from bringing an avatar of Thul into the world; as a result, Blar became allied with Alexandria.
1000: Theft of the Sword of Ea
Agents in Charn working in concert with the efforts of a Demon Cult known as the Cult of the Flesh, and it's leader a Balor named Tyrhannix, orchestrated an elaborate theft of the Myrrish artifact known as Einlazer, the Holy Sword of Ea. They believed this weapon was at least partially responsible for the laws that prevented demon kind from freely entering the world and soughtt o corrupt or destroy it. The sword was recovered through the efforts of Dragonier, Myrrish and Adventuring participants from Alexandria though in the process it was discovered that Charn had the capability of creating stealthed airships.
1003: The Merkabah Siege
Ten years passed beyond the Sorcereress Wars, and Alexandros remained under Myrrish guardianship...and control. Unsurprisingly, the people of Alexandros began to clamor for freedom and a return of sovereignty. Their nobility scattered, it looked as though the complaints would come to naught but angry grumbles...until Augustus reappeared. Angrily, the man who would be king denounced Myrddion and their actions. He reinstated the Phalanx Falcis, who were now seen as terrorists.
Augustus' actions ushered in a new era of tension and strife as his and his followers' actions became increasingly angry and desperate. His attempt to overthrow the Myrrish from Alexandrian land resulted in a strain upon his sanity and those around him. Such was the chaos and desperation that the most holy of holies, the Eidolon Court was nearly destroyed...and Myriddion and Alexandros began to view one another as potential enemies.
Events would reach their peak when the late summer and fall of AR 1003 in an event known as the Merkabah Siege. Two events heralded its eruption. First, the Eidolon Court was revealed to be the same fountain of divine energy of the days of ancient Kulthus, an incredible source of power and divinity, and what would mark it a sacred place of pilgrims in years to come. Second its uncovering forced the revealed identity of the Myrrish Governor...a surviving High Artificer. Saluven proved to have been responsible for much of the tensions and policies that had existed.
During the Merkabah Siege, Saluven's forced raised the floating fortress-city of Merkabah and called upon an ancient army of its constructs, undead, and the cult members of The Illuminated Order to descend upon Alexandria. The assault destroyed much of the city and many lives from the still-tired nation...yet in the end Saluven was defeated and Merkabah crashed into the mountains beyond the city.
The following winter, during an international summit, Myrddion agreed to restore full sovereignty back into the hands of Alexandros' ruling merchants, guild leaders and remaining nobility and the confederacy known as the Argent League was formed.
Amid these events, Blar would also break from Bludgun, resulting in a quickening change among the Arvek Nar culture. The Arvek celebrate this day, Aestry 6, 1003, as Liberation Day, when they began to stride forward underneath their own banner and emerging culture (see Calendar).
1004: Whitefoot's War
Whitefoot was a ghost who wished for everyone to have immortality. As part of his plan, the city was overrun with undead and constructs so that he could steal Big Ben, the giant war golem, from the Engineer's Enclave. He hoped that he could rip peoples' souls from their bodies and implant them into immortal war golems, freeing people from what he considered to be Vardama's tyrrany. However, a group of adventurers were able to free Ben, who then attacked and killed Whitefoot so no one else would have to share his fate. This latter part of the story is not known by many people; all they know is that suddenly the undead and constructs stopped attacking.
1005-1008: The Sendor War, Fall of Animus
The Bludguni warlord Kinnevack strode into Sendor years ago and turned the once-Myrrish land into a place of slavery and domination. She toppled old temples and ruled with an iron fist. The streets of Sendor turned to chaos, and where men fell, ogres and the old goblinkin took their place. Images of Maugrim dominated the Temple Square, and tribal spears ran red with the blood of Kor the Warlord, and drums sang of more to come.
A few years later, Alexandria would join forces with Myriddion, and drive its armies into Sendor. The pull required they withdraw troops from Blar, and that nation fell once again. Yet, Sendor and Myrddion marched with purpose to rescue friends and family. They drove demons from the town of Versis, and then toppled the once-unsurmountable fort of Gettys. Despite losses and the crashing of airships, the gods of Light appeared to bless their efforts.
Except, tragedy struck just the same.
As they lay camped at Versis, the clerics of the Knowing God suddenly went blind. Animus was struck from the world through Taara's hand, and his loss sent magecraft into chaos, and began the unraveling of the nation of Rune. Shortly after His fall, Taara and Eluna's agents went to war over the dominion of magic. And, licking its wounds, the army still marched on--though now they looked over their shoulders, for gone was the Father of Wisdom and magic now bore two mothers, one of Evil and one of Light.
They eventually would fell Kinnevack, and retake Sendor. And as the armies gathered beneath the combined flags of nations, world peace lay on the horizon, despite the fall of a god. The ancient king of Myrddion and the elder king of Bludgun saw much in common with one another, and began, in Alexandria, to reach towards one another with the hand of peace.
Behind the falling of Sendor, the ghost of a whisper suggested that the twisted god of war, Kosomoth, was gone as well. To most at the time, this was at best a worrisome suggestion. Those deeply involved within their faith, however, heatedly debate the correlation between the fall of Bludgun and of the god so many of its people worshiped. They also look to Taara, after the dust between her followers and Eluna's settled, but did not abate. And wonder at the reach of the dark goddess' greed.
In the end, the world had lost two gods and would soon lose two kings.
1008-1013: Vanishing of Alexandria and the Rise of Shadows
With the end of the Sendor War, Alexandria became the center of world events. The weathered kings of two nations, Myrddion and Bludgun, gathered and shook hands over the beginnings of world peace. It was at that time that Alexandria was ripped from the world--though to the world at large, she simply disappeared. She vanished from the world for five years, though Alexandria would not age but days. In the meantime, the world plunged into war and once-proud Rune crumbled.
The former followers of Animus were taken in at various temples. Navos switched from the pantheon of Light to that of Neutral, and absorbed many of them to his own. Others too, went to a war-scarred Eluna, and yet more to other temples. Of Kosomoth's, little is known and many in Ea do not seem to care. At least in public. At least outside of Bludgun.
When Alexandria reappeared, it became a source of hope as well as suspicion. The world wondered why it had vanished amid so much tragedy, and Alexandrians quickly came to find that so had the great kings of Bludgun and Myrddion, who had been on the verge of peace. Its walls were swiftly swarmed with politicians, accusers, ambassadors, hopefuls, and...refugees.
Refugees from near and far fled into Alexandria as a place of sanity in a world gone mad, where food stores had been destroyed or life had just become "uncertain." Politicians held heated talks.
Amid this backdrop, rumors spread of a man and a woman in the Mists, of ancient figures of Alexandria's history coming forth again. The Mists however, faded, and since then, those rumors have been scoffed at. Worse, the kings have as yet not been found. Instead, Alexandria has found its greatest ally, Myrddion, locked in a cold war between two brothers.
The one beacon of hope amidst all this chaos came in the most unexpected of forms. Having just lost two gods and two kings to the world and reeling from chaos, whispers of hope began to surface as a new life in the heavens looked to be born. Serriel, a goddess of righteous war and civilization, stepped forward. Though new, she was swift to adopt the new arvek nar into her fold. Scholars name this a turning point for the troubled arvek, while poets title it the transformation of the Children of Sunset into the Children of the Dawn.
1014: The Fake Mists
Roughly a year after Alexandria's reappearance, the mists returned... They rolled out of the Red Ridge mountains as they did before, crossing over the countryside from east to west. Panic grew as they settled into place and farms shut down. Some people crowded into the city while others fled the area all together for fear of being trapped outside the world again.
Food became more difficult to obtain and crops rotted in the fields, unharvested. Prices on essentials of all kinds rose and the coffers of merchants who sought to exploit the situation swelled.
Slowly, through the diligent work of the city watch and adventurers, it became known that the mists were fake, unlike the ones that had swallowed the city before, and were coming from some place a near the mining town of Denston in the Red Ridge Mountains. It was believed that a Mul'niessa known only as Malik, was behind the growing fear. Many military forces and workers were made to work the farms that had been abandoned to secure the harvest and others still, along with mercenaries, went to work rooting out the source of the mists in the mountains.
Eventually, it was found in the fortress known as Khamon Sotch--an old khazadi fort lost to ages. Small, for khazadi standards, but still formidable. It was there that bold adventurers and city watch men struck a blow against the allies of the Shadow Sorceress by destroying the mist generator and putting an end to the mul'niessan's plans.
Officially, Malik is said to've been killed at the battle of Khamon Sotch, but it is believed that the thwarted bank robbery, on the same day of the assault of the fort, is no coincidence. Many speculate that Malik was killed or captured there, and that the mists were nothing more than a large effort to swell the bank's coffers and then rob it -- nothing more, nothing less.
Either way, Alexandria is again free of the fear that had gripped it and stands strengthened in the views of those who thought it might slip away again.
1014: The Seas of Alexandros
As the khazad and others work to establish the world's trade routes, Alexandria find itself in a unique position of being...mostly intact, and even more than before, it becomes a center of trade. The illegal sorts begin to take notice and Alexandria city is beset by pirates and sabotage. Trade slows to a near-halt.
1015: The Cannibal Queen
In 1015, the Cannibal Queen came to Alexandria. Long thought to be an old child's tale, she nonetheless covered not just the nation of Alexandros, but began spreading to other lands. Her influence began subtly--arguments would quickly spike into brawls, for example. Swiftly though, tales of instability and chaos ran ahead like wildfire. More and more people found themselves under the influence of madness.
Foreign forces moved in to take advantage. Parts of Charn, pirates, and a number of Alexandros' old enemies were swift in their striking.
Alexandria struck back when the executed one of the Queen's chiefs, a man known as the Butcher. Swiftly after, they begin to rally and to work with other nations to gather artifacts. These artifacts were then used to perform a city-wide ritual to banish the Queen from the ether and to wrest her control away from numerous souls and minds across Ea. The Temple of Tarien, in a surprise twist, hosted the ritual with the Daeusites acting as decoys. The Daeusite Temple suffered structural losses, as did much of the city itself.
Note, the Cannibal Queen is also referred to as the Azure Queen, or in more common parlance among the streets, the Blue Bitch.
1016: Onwards!
Past here, we started placing arcs into categories in the wiki. This is not the best system, but it is what we have. :S